LA PAZ/BERLIN (Own report) - The German government and one of the opposition's leading politicians have approved the coup in Bolivia. Elected President Evo Morales' resignation, imposed by the military leadership is an "important step toward a peaceful solution," claims a speaker of the German government. According to the foreign policy spokesman of the Greens parliamentary group in the Bundestag, the military has "taken the right decision." To avoid bloodshed, Morales resigned following a police mutiny and an ultimate threat of the chief of the armed forces. Mainly the white, wealthy circles from the Bolivian lowlands, whose politicians are occasionally cooperating with German party-affiliated foundations are the driving forces behind the coup. One of these politicians is in consideration for becoming the interim president. Particularly the indigenous people, who, to a large extent had been lifted out of abject poverty though Morales' measures, are the ones suffering the brunt of the coup. A German company had also been involved in recent developments that had weakened the President's standing. Read more
BERLIN/LA PAZ (Own report) - Massive protests have erupted in Bolivia against a German-affiliated lithium mining joint venture for use in E-car batteries. The consortium, in which the German ACI medium-sized enterprise is participating, is being accused of illegally withholding from the communities surrounding the sites of the lithium deposits in Bolivia's highlands, their share of the export returns. Doubts are growing about whether the joint venture ("YLB ACISA E.M.") will actually construct a complete lithium value chain, all the way to the finished car battery, in Bolivia, as President Evo Morales' government had originally demanded. The German project partners' claims to patent rights and the control of the financial flow are nurturing additional suspicion toward the medium-size enterprise from Baden Wurttemberg. The company had been given massive support at the federal level, to prevail in the competition against consortiums from China, Russia and the USA. Read more